The Journal of the International Society for Frontier Missiology Int’l Journal of Frontier Missiology The Elusive Nomad 111 From the Editor’s Desk Brad Gill Beyond the Minefields 113 Articles 113 Consider the Nomad: A Felt-Needs Approach Caleb Rome When mission threatens the land of the free. 123 God and the Nomads: Highlighting the Biblical Narrative Malcolm Hunter Might God prefer the margins of civilization? 133 On the Road with Nomads in Central Asia: A Page out of My Journal S. Clement Orbiting in the nomadic atmosphere. 136 The People of the Cornstalk Rowland V. Bingham 100 years later the challenge remains. 139 Orality Comes of Age: The Maturation of a Movement Tom Steffen One long innovation over 40 years. 149 LIFE Scale: Exploring Eight Dimensions of Life in Christ L. D. Waterman Can we figure out another’s identity in Christ? 158 Book Reviews 158 Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up 160 In Others’ Words 160 Global Oppression and Martyrdom Ebola The Salvation Army’s Historic Holism World Religions 161 Global Trends Nomads and Mobile Ministry The Preference for Mobile Phone Viewing General Links about Mobile Ministries 31:3July–September 2014 Beyond the Minefields July–September 2014 Volume 31:3 inefields are a haunting modern reality. I recall staring across a Editor minefield on the edge of the Sahara desert a few years ago and Brad Gill Editor-at-Large being prohibited from venturing forth in our Land Rover. A dis- Rory Clark puted political borderland had shut down the nomadic routes which had histori- Consulting Editors M Rick Brown, Gavriel Gefen, Herbert Hoefer, cally crisscrossed this arid tundra. I was there to assist the research of Malcolm Rebecca Lewis, H. L. Richard, Steve Saint Hunter, an expert on the world’s nomads, and his disappointment was evident as we were forced to surrender our plans to this modern weaponry. Our predica- Layout Marjorie Clark ment that day made the nomads seem even more remote and inconsequential Secretary to our developed world. The problem of access certainly complicates mission to Lois Carey these least-reached peoples. Publisher Bradley Gill, representing the student-level History tells quite a tale of these nomads and their influence on the margins of meeting at Edinburgh 1980. civilization. Through the centuries, hordes of them swept in from the Eurasian 2014 ISFM Executive Committee steppes to shape, define and transform Europe, Russia and China. The Christian Greg Parsons, Brad Gill, Rory Clark, conversion of Celtic nomads sent the first wave of evangelizing monks across Darrell Dorr barbarian Europe. And from the Bedouins of Arabia an Islamic monotheism Web Site exploded west across North Africa and eastward into South East Asia. Yes, the www.ijfm.org nomad’s place is far more consequential in the history of our globe than modern notions might admit. They ruled those vast interstitial regions which linked Editorial Correspondence 1605 E. Elizabeth Street major civilizations, and were capable of leveling empires. Like the Great Wall Pasadena, CA 91104 of China, the minefield I encountered was just the latest technology to control (734) 765-0368, [email protected] these nomadic regions. Subscriptions Geographers suggest there was no more room for global expansion by ad 1900 One year (four issues) $18.00 when the great Age of Discovery ended.1 Since then, globalization and technolog- Two years (eight issues) $34.00 ical advance have intensified the connectivity of our civilization so that we simply Three years (twelve issues) $48.00 Single copies $5.00, multiple copies $4.00 expect the inevitable assimilation of nomads to a settled existence. But the authors Payment must be enclosed with orders. in this issue of the IJFM point out the tenacity of nomadic peoples’ freedom and Please supply us with current address and the value they place on liberty of movement which flows like “capital” through change of address when necessary. their economy of life. It’s a value I recognize from my years living adjacent to Send all subscription correspondence to: transhumant Berber shepherds who would frequent North African markets. Those IJFM 1605 E. Elizabeth Street “freemen” (amazighan) gave no hint of wanting to settle down unless forced to do Pasadena, CA 91104 so. Throughout history, nomads have had to maintain a delicate symbiosis with Tel: (330) 626-3361 Fax: (626) 398-2263 sedentary civilization, and their interaction and conflict with this modern jug- Email: [email protected] gernaut has caused an erosion in their numbers. (Estimates differ on the global population of nomads).2 But don’t confuse nomadic peoples with any modern IJFM (ISSN #2161-3354) was established in 1984 by the International Student Editorial continued on p. 112 Leaders Coalition for Frontier Missions. It is published quarterly. The views expressed in IJFM are those of the various authors and not necessarily those COPYRIGHT ©2014 International Student of the journal’s editors, the International Society for Frontier Missiology or the society’s Leaders Coalition for Frontier Missions. executive committee. PRINTED in the USA 112 From the Editor’s Desk, Who We Are diaspora or the many refugees who synthesis of the present missiological strategic approaches in mission. I recall migrate under duress from one settled debate over the various identities of when the insight of Don Richardson’s place to another. The nomad’s move- Muslims who turn to Christ (p. 149). Peace Child alerted us to the redemp- ment is voluntary and constant, and for Many nomadic populations are Islamic tive analogies which God has placed this reason presents an exceptional test and any movement to Christ among in different cultures. Nomads are just for cross-cultural mission. them will require nuanced discernment. one more tribal challenge which might Just how do we imagine a wandering yield to these perceptive approaches. God is not unfamiliar with this nomad might follow Christ? What do nomadic challenge, and Malcolm It’s time for a new generation to get we expect for a nomadic church? I’ve Hunter makes that ever so clear in his around the minefields and into these heard Malcolm Hunter frequently say highlighting of the biblical narrative least-reached nomads. that if a church can’t fit on the back of (p. 123). Neither are mission agen- a camel, it won’t work among nomads. In Him, cies unfamiliar with this challenge, as (Might we get any hints from the Rowland Bingham’s historic piece from Celtic nomads in Patrick’s day?) We 1916 suggests (p. 136). But after a cen- hope Waterman’s LIFE scale will help tury of nomadic mission, Caleb Rome Brad Gill stimulate a broader discernment in Senior Editor, IJFM observes persistent realities which test these radically different contexts. Endnotes our mettle as a mission movement We’ve also included Tom Steffen’s 1 See Robert Kaplan’s The Revenge of (p. 113). There’s something elusive quick history on how the orality Geography (Random House, 2012), p. 63. for us moderns when it comes to the 2 See the report of the UN Commis- movement was birthed and refined nomadic zeitgeist, and S. Clement cap- sion of Nomadic Peoples. across many tribal contexts (p. 139). 3 On this technology see “The Little tures the rhythms of that life in a vivid It runs in tandem with the new access Phone that Could,” in IJFM 27:3 Fall page out of his diary (p. 133). Together 2010, p. 139, and more recently, see Mission nomads have to the visual “storying” of these articles make one wonder what it Frontiers 36:3, May/June 2014 at www.mis- the gospel—an access derived largely sionfrontiers.org. will take for any metropolitan church from the leap forward in mobile phone to effectively train up and equip those technology (see p. 161).3 In a day of able to meet this challenge. increasing urban focus, let’s remember Two other articles strategically intersect that mission within the constraints of this nomadic theme. L. D. Waterman smaller and seemingly inconsequential introduces the LIFE scale as a new tribal worlds has generated some very The IJFM is published in the name of the International Student Leaders Coalition for Frontier Missions, a fellowship of younger leaders committed to the purposes of the twin consultations of Edinburgh 1980: The World Consultation on Frontier Missions and the International Student Consultation on Frontier Missions. As an expression of the ongoing concerns of Edinburgh 1980, the IJFM seeks to: promote intergenerational dialogue between senior and junior mission leaders; cultivate an international fraternity of thought in the development of frontier missiology; highlight the need to maintain, renew, and create mission agencies as vehicles for frontier missions; encourage multidimensional and interdisciplinary studies; foster spiritual devotion as well as intellectual growth; and advocate “A Church for Every People.” Mission frontiers, like other frontiers, represent boundaries or barriers beyond which we must go yet beyond which we may not be able to see clearly and boundaries which may even be disputed or denied. Their study involves the discovery and evaluation of the unknown or even the reevaluation of the known. But unlike other frontiers, mission frontiers is a subject specifically concerned to explore and exposit areas and ideas and insights related to the glorification of God in all the nations (peoples) of the world, “to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.” (Acts 26:18) Subscribers and other readers of the IJFM (due to ongoing promotion) come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Mission professors, field mission- aries, young adult mission mobilizers, college librarians, mission executives, and mission researchers all look to the IJFM for the latest thinking in frontier missiology.